Mighty the Armadillo's sprite sheet is nearly identical to Sonic's sprite sheet from Sonic Crackers, a Genesis prototype game from which Knuckles Chaotix drew its elastic ring mechanic.
This has led fans to speculate that Sonic was originally intended to be in the game instead of Mighty, but was changed late in development. This, as well as the theory that Tails was also meant to be included, is backed up by other assets in the game, including Amy Rose being hidden in a sound test and Sonic and Tails appearing in the ending screen when the game is completed with all 7 Chaos Rings.
This has led fans to speculate that Sonic was originally intended to be in the game instead of Mighty, but was changed late in development. This, as well as the theory that Tails was also meant to be included, is backed up by other assets in the game, including Amy Rose being hidden in a sound test and Sonic and Tails appearing in the ending screen when the game is completed with all 7 Chaos Rings.
The game was built from an earlier scrapped prototype meant for the Sega 32X called "Sonic Crackers." The original prototype was similar to the final version of this game only with Sonic and Tails being tethered together.
Standing still for a minute will cause Metal Sonic to appear and attack.
Although this was Charmy Bee's first appearance in a Sonic game, he actually originated from a short lived Sonic The Hedgehog manga from 1992, three years before the game.
Knuckles' Chaotix is one of the few Sonic games that don't feature Sonic himself. The others are primarily Tails games on the Game Gear.